Weekly ReportWeekly Newsletter [#57]

Chief Web Engineer

Introduction
Hi friends! As we move towards our goals and are deeply engaged in developing Project Genom, here’s another traditional weekly report on the work done over the last week.

Software
This week, testers found a critical bug that caused the servers to fall. It was found by accident, and it seemed there was no pattern at first. We released constant daily updates tormenting even our most stubborn testers, and we’re extremely grateful for their commitment. We even had to create and use simple bots to detect the problem without uploading the build every 10 minutes. Our team has identified the cause of this bug and majorly refined how the client’s communication system connects to the database to eliminate it. We still need some time for testing, but let’s hope that this unpleasant problem is eliminated for good and the connection speed has increased.

In addition to fighting against bugs and flaws, this week we’ve completed and set up the Brawler mobs. Soon we will add them to the in-game world, where they will hurl giant rocks, run at players head-straight and hammer them with their strong paws as a real brawler should.

World
Our team has the updated map and finished working on the LODs for the in-game world. There has been a little problem with the previous LODs as testers reported on holes visible under certain conditions. We have reworked all the areas and, in fact, created a new map and new LODs from scratch. While working on this task we’ve also modified the map’s material. There is still a lot of vegetation to be created for the final map and LODs but fortunately, this task is no longer a priority.

Enemies
This week, our team engaged in creating animations for Slider mobs. Sliders will be a special new kind of flying mobs. Earlier mechanics included pivoting but now we’re working on a separate and more complex system for flying mobs. This system which will allow us to use higher quality and more elaborated animations without any restrictions. Thus, mobs will fly at any altitude, soar up, pivot down, etc.

This week, we’ve created all high-poly Slider Larvae models and started working on the low-polygon game models.

Conclusion
It has been a week of hard and rather stressful work for developers and testers, and we’d like to express our gratitude to everyone working for the project. Such critical errors as the one we described in the first paragraph of this report are rare but when they arise it’s always when they’re least expected.

We’d also like to remind you that at the moment the main work on the project is done on the PTS servers. We’ll transfer the updated project to the main server only after we finish and successfully test the quest system. Now all players who want to see that the project is moving forward have an opportunity to take part in PTS testing. To take part in the test, you must have an activated copy of the game and follow the registration as described on this page:

And, once again, we want to remind everyone considering purchasing the game that it’s still in its Alpha stage, and we don’t recommend buying it if you expect a full-fledged finished project. By purchasing the game now, you support the development and have an opportunity to see its early stages. If you want to enjoy a full game experience with the maximum number of game mechanics and no critical errors, we advise you to wait until the project enters the beta testing phase or even later.